The soothsayer

“—And I saw a great sadness come over mankind. The best turned weary of their works. A doctrine appeared, a faith ran beside it: ‘All is empty, all is alike, all hath been!’ And from all hills there re-echoed: ‘All is…

The soothsayer describes a great sadness over mankind: rotten fruit, dried fountains, and men living on in sepulchres. Zarathustra hears it, is touched by the foreboding, and becomes sad and weary like those described.

A doctrine appeared, a faith ran beside it: ‘All is empty, all is alike, all hath been!’

The soothsayer names the doctrine that spreads among men.

Thus spake the disciple; and all the others then thronged around Zarathustra, grasped him by the hands, and tried to persuade him to leave his bed and his sadness, and return unto them. Zarathustra, however, sat upright…

The disciples raise Zarathustra; he recovers and calls for a good meal to make amends for bad dreams. He says the soothsayer shall eat at his side and he will show him a sea to drown in, then looks long at the interpreter and shakes his head.

The great disgust at man—IT strangled me and had crept into my throat: and what the soothsayer had presaged: “All is alike, nothing is worth while, knowledge strangleth.” A long twilight limped on before me, a fatally…

Zarathustra tells how the disgust strangled him: the sadness yawned that the small man returns eternally. He saw the greatest and the smallest man naked and all too alike.

The next day sat Zarathustra again on the stone in front of his cave, whilst his animals roved about in the world outside to bring home new food,—also new honey: for Zarathustra had spent and wasted the old honey to the…

Zarathustra, tracing his shadow outside his cave, is startled by a second shadow: the soothsayer. They greet each other, and the soothsayer warns that waves of distress are rising round the mountain.

“O Zarathustra, I have come that I may seduce thee to thy last sin!”

The soothsayer answers 'Pity!' with an overflowing heart and announces his aim.

Zarathustra was silent thereupon, confused and staggered; at last he asked, like one who hesitateth in himself: “And who is it that there calleth me?” “But thou knowest it, certainly,” answered the soothsayer warmly,…

The soothsayer reveals that the cry comes from the higher man. Zarathustra is horror-struck and breaks into a sweat.

“O Zarathustra,” he began, with sorrowful voice, “thou dost not stand there like one whose happiness maketh him giddy: thou wilt have to dance lest thou tumble down! But although thou shouldst dance before me, and leap…

The soothsayer says Zarathustra must dance lest he fall, and that no joyous man or happiness is to be found among the hidden, buried-alive ones.

“Nay! Nay! Three times Nay!” exclaimed he with a strong voice, and stroked his beard—“THAT do I know better! There are still Happy Isles!

Zarathustra recovers his serenity, tells the soothsayer to stop splashing him with misery, and decides to go at once to the forest where the cry came from.

With those words Zarathustra turned around to depart. Then said the soothsayer: “O Zarathustra, thou art a rogue! I know it well: thou wouldst fain be rid of me! Rather wouldst thou run into the forest and lay snares…

The soothsayer accuses Zarathustra of running away and says he will wait in the cave. Zarathustra offers him his honey and says that he too is a soothsayer.

It was late in the afternoon only when Zarathustra, after long useless searching and strolling about, again came home to his cave. When, however, he stood over against it, not more than twenty paces therefrom, the thing…

Returning home, Zarathustra hears the cry of distress again, this time from his own cave. He finds all the men he met that day sitting there, and greets them with courteous curiosity.

Thus spake Zarathustra, and stopped suddenly in his discourse: for his longing came over him, and he closed his eyes and his mouth, because of the agitation of his heart. And all his guests also were silent, and stood…

Zarathustra stops mid-speech, overcome by longing, and closes his eyes and mouth. The guests fall silent, and only the old soothsayer makes signs.

For at this point the soothsayer interrupted the greeting of Zarathustra and his guests: he pressed forward as one who had no time to lose, seized Zarathustra’s hand and exclaimed: “But Zarathustra! One thing is more…

The soothsayer interrupts the greeting, reminds Zarathustra he was invited to table, and complains of hunger, thirst and the lack of wine. Zarathustra's animals flee in terror at his appetite.

All on a sudden however, Zarathustra’s ear was frightened: for the cave which had hitherto been full of noise and laughter, became all at once still as death;—his nose, however, smelt a sweet-scented vapour and…

The cave falls silent and fills with incense. Zarathustra looks in and finds all the higher men kneeling and praying to the ass, and the ugliest man begins a litany.

“FELLOW-SUFFERING! FELLOW-SUFFERING WITH THE HIGHER MEN!” he cried out, and his countenance changed into brass.

Recollecting the previous day, Zarathustra recalls the soothsayer's promise of a last sin. After brooding he springs up and names it as fellow-suffering with the higher men, declaring that its time is past.